Calendar

About eight years ago a beer advertisement in the United States became a cultural phenomenon when it popularized the expression “Wassup!?” (a play on the greeting: “What’s up?”). It was an advertisement about “living the America dream” (watching a football game, having a beer, and all the rest):

Now there’s an updated version of this ad, showing where the “Wussup!?” guys have ended up:

I hope that Americans – who are sobering up – will soon realize that there is no way around the law of nature – “Humanity is one family,” and will start following it.

A question I received: I’m trying to reconcile the contradiction between the notion of “faith above reason” and your recurring claim that Kabbalah isn’t built on faith, but on sensations and accurate knowledge.

Is the meaning of “faith above reason” that instead of blindly believing something I an told, I take the path that allows me to see for myself whether the things I’m being told are right or wrong?

My Answer: The first man who felt the Creator was Adam (see Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Secret of Attaining the Wisdom” in the book Fruits of Wisdom). The Jewish calendar starts on that day – the first day of the month of Tishrey of the year 0 (5768 years ago).

In the generations following Adam there were others who attained the Creator, but Kabbalah became what it is now only twenty generations later, in Ancient Babylon (4000 years ago). A Babylonian priest named Abraham discovered Kabbalah and described its basic laws in The Book of Creation. He also gathered students and formed the first Kabbalistic group. His followers – his physical and spiritual sons (in those times people were named by the leader of the clan or tribe) continued to develop spiritually. This continued until the people fell from the sensation of the Creator to the sensation of just our world (and as a result, the Second Temple was destroyed 2000 years ago).

After this fall from the sensation of the spiritual world into our world, all of the definitions and names they used before, and their language in general (Hebrew) fell from the spiritual level to the corporeal level. The same words began to signify the things that they started to see, hear and understand. That is to say, the words acquired a corporeal meaning, instead of the things they used to signify in the past. Ever since, the Kabbalistic texts were written with the same letters and words, but everything depends on who reads them – whether it’s someone who’s on the spiritual level like the author, or only on the corporeal level.

“Faith above reason,” for instance, denotes the following condition: the desire (quality) to bestow (Bina, Hafetz Hessed, the Light of Hassadim) is above the desire to receive, called “knowledge,” because in it one receives the Light of Hochma, the Light of Wisdom.

For those who do not perceive the Upper World, the word “faith” means belief in something that may or may not exist, something people only talk about but cannot sense. Kabbalah never talks about this kind of faith, because by definition it engages only in the revelation of the Creator to man in this world! (See Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah.”)

So if you want to understand the truth, when reading the Kabbalistic texts you must “translate” what you read from the corporeal level to the spiritual level. Then you won’t err like all the religious people who read Kabbalistic texts (the Torah, the Talmud, the prayer book, and so on), interpreting them on the corporeal level. This is actually the source of mankind’s misunderstanding of the Creator.

In the article, “The Secret of Attaining the Wisdom,” Baal HaSulam writes: “The attainment of the whole universe in its absolute depth and interconnections of its parts was revealed in its entirety by Adam.” This is why we call him “The First Man” – because he was the first to achieve the level of “Human” – Adam (in Hebrew), which means “similar to the Creator.”

Question:The Book of Zohar says that before the arrival of the MashiachBen David (Messiah Son of David), the MashiachBen Yoseph (Messiah Son of Joseph) will come. There will be a preparation before arrival of the Mashiach. Is the world’s current condition (the crisis) this preparation? And what kind of force is the MashiachBen Yoseph?

My Answer: The MashiachBen Yoseph is the revelation of the modern method of correction by the Ari in the 16th century. The world’s present condition is the beginning of the revelation of the Creator, or the preparation for His revelation. The speed of this process depends on us.

Question: Is the Messiah the name of the Light that’s powerful enough to raise both the righteous and the wicked to the Creator – everyone together, in response to mankind’s prayer after recognizing that it’s impossible to keep living in this world? Or is it a person sent to this world with the power to attract the Light called the Messiah?

My Answer: The Messiah is the revelation of the Creator. This action (revelation) of the Upper Light takes place together with the revelation of knowledge about the nature of creation, its plan, process and purpose. This is achieved through disseminating this knowledge (“the call of Messiah”) by those who aspire toward the goal of creation. To the degree people resist this process, their intentions and actions – the forces of resistance – will elicit suffering.

A question I received: Do you think that the current global crisis will bring us back to a multi-polar world, the way Russia wants it to?

My Answer: We must recognize that only actions aimed at balance with the single, global nature can bring us real benefit – unity into one whole, the creation of one global government, global distribution of the natural resources and of the results of commercial production. Of course, it’s impossible to attain this instantaneously, but even small steps in this direction – due to being directed toward equivalence with Nature – will be accompanied by positive changes.

The opposition between Russia and America, their isolation from each other, and the crisis that followed, showed that it’s no longer possible for one country to prosper at the expense of another – “I’m happy when you’re sad.” Either both succeed or both fail.

Moreover, this doesn’t depend on what the politicians want or don’t want. It is an objective revelation of the global world. In the global economy there cannot be any competition between nations, because we all share the same finances – even though it still seems strange that each has its own budget, banks, and problems. If they will continue along this route, then the crisis will grow from an economic one into a systematic social one, and then – a political one.

There is only one solution: to consider the world round instead of multi-polar. To consider finances common and not personal, to view Nature as the Upper Law; to study its globality, harmony and balance – and follow it!